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24 June 2008

The human — and canine — stories behind the closure of San Francisco SPCA ' s Hearing Dog Program

This November should have been the 30th anniversary of the San Francisco SPCA's Hearing Dog Program, which took dogs out of shelters and trained them to alert their deaf and hearing impaired human partners to sounds like smoke alarms, oncoming traffic, the phone, and a knock at the door.

But instead of breaking out the birthday cake, the program found itself homeless, its trainers out of a job with not even a day's notice, its hearing-dogs-in-training moved into the shelter's adoption program to be placed as pets, and dozens of people in line to receive a dog left having to start their long wait over at a different agency. People like Nona Stegman, whose story is part of my column on SFGate.com this week:

Nona Stegman wants a dog.

Not the way, say, your little nephew who envies his cousins' golden retriever does. And not even the way you might, after seeing your neighbor running in the park with his happy-go-lucky mixed breed dog.

Nona wants a dog because she's deaf and a parapalegic. "A service animal is the lifeline for people who have been awarded a dog to help them through their daily schedules," she told me. She needs a dog with special training, who can walk safely at the side of her wheelchair, alert her to sounds, retrieve objects she's dropped, and bring her the phone if she falls.

But as important as those things are, they're not the only reasons why Nona wants a dog. She's had one before, and found it made a huge difference in the quality of her life. "This animal would be such a major comfort in my life," she said. "It would allow me to have a friend again. I miss it greatly."

Nona applied about two years ago to the San Francisco SPCA's Hearing Dog Program for one of its specially trained assistance dogs. She also recently relocated to California from Nevada partly to provide a better living situation, including a fenced yard, for the dog.

There's also a canine side of the story:

Before the program was closed, and at about the same time Nona Stegman was moving to California and preparing to receive her trained hearing dog, Central Valley dog trainer Julia Priest was working with Tofu, a bright-eyed little Pomeranian some clients of hers had rescued from an abusive situation. He was a fast learner, eager and alert. "I taught him sit down and come in about a day," Priest told me. "He was just very bright, very trainable, highly reward motivated, and so easy to teach new behaviors."

She thought he'd be a perfect hearing dog, so she brought him to Hoffman, who agreed the little dog was a natural.

"I talked to the owners," Priest told me, "and said, 'This is the situation. He'll get this special training and he'll get to help somebody.' And they said, 'OK, well, if that's what it's going to be, then we're willing to let him go.'" So, Tofu donned a bright orange jacket with the Hearing Dog Program's logo on it, and began the training that might have led him to be the partner of someone like Nona.

But Tofu isn't anyone's helper today; he was one of the hearing-dogs-in-training who was put into the San Francisco SPCA's adoption program, where he was quickly adopted as a pet.

Martha Hoffman's book Lend Me An Ear is one of the most valuable resources I've got, an alternative view of how to select a working dog. (Different from the standard paradigm derived from police/military selection.) It's one I've recommended to many hearing-impaired people who think it would be fun 'n' easy to get one o' them hearing dawgs you can take on the bus.

And if trainer Julia Priest says a dog is meant to be a working dog, then he is. How would a Pennsylvanian know such a thing? Maybe because of the rocket-powered, monkey-navigated, human-finding machine of a German shepherd I got from Julia a few years ago. Most focused and easy-to-train SAR dog I've ever seen. Was little Tofu the signal dog equivalent of Sophia? I pity the pet owners who thought it would be kewl to adopt a "trained dog" and are now living with an unemployed workaholic; but I pity the dog much more.

Two trainers whom I respect for their service to humans in need, and expertise in building up the right dogs to do the job, are saying that those people and dogs got screwed. Gotcha sisters.

Since when does a major charity work by ensuring that every charitable program generate enough direct revenue to cover its operating costs? That's not even good business practice. It is the sort of thing that pinhead B-school grad consultants (hee hoo does not have to live with the organizational consequences) will come up with, in order to justify their tremendous fees.

I am confident that if the SF SPCA had tried, they could have saved this program. I've seen communities step up and help shelters for a lot less compelling reasons.

I find it hard to believe that in all of SF, there wasn't a single organization they couldn't have partnered with to transition this program to another shelter or organization. But I guess if you don't look you don't have to do the work involved.

I'm also disturbed to think that people gave donations to this program which are not apparently now being used for other purposes. Hello: I think the Attorney General for CA ought to be looking into the possible misuse of these funds.

Finally, there are other programs around the country who train dogs for hearing impaired invidivuals. The fact that the SF SPCA apparently made no attempt to transfer the partially trained dogs to one of the groups is unconscionable.

How terrible! Its such a shame that there wasn't the financial support to continue this program. I read the full article and I still have to wonder - why weren't there fundraising activities geared toward saving the shelter? If that info was disclosed, perhaps they would have had a better chance of saving this all too important program...